‘Never thought Suits would run for more than six years’

Gabriel Macht says that his fans will find it tough to ac­cept him in a role other than Harvey Spec­tor

Never did ac­tor Gabriel Macht imag­ine that his role as Harvey Spec­tor, the smooth, good-look­ing, and over­con­fi­dent lawyer in the Amer­i­can le­gal drama se­ries Suits, would bring him global fame. The 45-year-old says that he didn’t think the show, now so pop­u­lar, would sur­vive for more than six years.

“We’re shoot­ing our 100th episode, and it has been an in­cred­i­ble past six years. But did I think that the show will have legs to run for six and more years? No, I was like, ‘In how many ways can you tell a story?’ But then, Aaron Korsh (the show’s cre­ator) has found a way to tell it in different ways, and ev­ery­one loves it,” says Macht. The Amer­i­can, who has also been in pop­u­lar movies, in­clud­ing Love & Other Drugs (2011), feels grate­ful when fans say that they’re in­spired by the show. “I’ve un­der­stood the world in a bet­ter way through Harvey Spec­tor,” says Macht. “He has taught me to un­der­stand men, women, and re­la­tion­ships.”

Not only are we en­ter­tain­ing peo­ple and giv­ing them an es­cape route from their daily lives, [but] we also in­spire them to be some­thing more. That’s a great thing GABRIEL MACHT, AC­TOR

Amer­i­can ac­tor Gabriel Macht (right) has made a place in many hearts with his por­trayal of the smooth-talk­ing lawyer Harvey Spec­tor in the pop­u­lar le­gal drama se­ries Suits. As the show gets ready to air its sev­enth sea­son, which will premiere in In­dia on July 14 on Com­edy Cen­tral, we speak to the ac­tor about the show. Ex­cerpts:

Your char­ac­ter of Harvey Spec­tor has be­come quite iconic over the years. Does it bother you that it will be dif­fi­cult for you to play an­other char­ac­ter once the show is over?

In some ways it’s go­ing to be very dif­fi­cult be­cause there are many who are my fans be­cause of Harvey Spec­tor. So they would want me to con­tinue with the char­ac­ter, have the same kind of style — the ban­ter and the over­con­fi­dence. So when it does get over, maybe I will take a break, and then come back and have a beard you know. (laughs) I mean I hope that peo­ple give me that space to try different char­ac­ters on screen and jus­tify them.

Harvey’s lines are of­ten quoted by many fans of show, and they have be­come hugely in­spi­ra­tional. Do you have any favourite quotes?

I don’t re­ally have a per­sonal favourite Harvey Spec­tor quote. I read them, and some­times I go like, oh that’s pretty cool, or wow that’s in­tel­li­gent. But hon­estly, I can’t af­ford to re­mem­ber the lines. I am learn­ing eight pages of di­a­logues ev­ery day, so it be­comes tough for me to re­mem­ber ev­ery­thing. Too much in­for­ma­tion you know. But I know that peo­ple love them and get in­spired by it as well. That’s a re­ally grat­i­fy­ing thing.

Harvey is also known for his good looks on the show. Is there any spe­cific regime that you fol­low to look so good?

(Laughs) I don’t look like Harvey at all in real life. I only look good, be­cause I go to the van, where a man puts makeup upon me for about 30 min­utes. Then, there is a guy who does my hair, and then there are th­ese in­cred­i­ble de­sign­ers who make clothes, per­fect for ev­ery inch of your body. I don’t have any par­tic­u­lar style guide. It’s down to the make up, the hair stylist and the de­sign­ers who make me look good.

Since the char­ac­ter has had an im­pact on so many peo­ple across the globe. How has it im­pacted you?

I have un­der­stood the world in a bet­ter way through Harvey Spec­tor. He has taught me to un­der­stand men, women, re­la­tion­ships and many other things. He has made me un­der­stand the im­por­tance of de­ci­sion mak­ing.